1 week Ago By Frank Zicarelli
Article content A perennially slow starter, Anthony Santander has done absolutely nothing to change that narrative in this his first season with the Blue Jays. He saw his former teammates in Toronto when Baltimore was in town to help usher in the Jays’ home opener. He now will return to Baltimore for the first time as a member of the opposition.
The switch-hitting slugger spent eight seasons in Baltimore, but last year, which coincided with his contract season, was his best as Santander reached career highs in homers (44) and RBI (102). Maybe the friendly confines of Oriole Park at Camden Yards will provide that necessary jolt. He continues to hit third in the Jays’ batting order and he did record his 10th hit of the season when he reached base on a single in his first at-bat.
Then came three straight strikeouts followed by a groundout in the 10th inning, but it did advance the runner, Andres Gimenez, to third base. Gimenez scored on a George Springer sac fly. Santander limps into Baltimore with a .
185 batting average and zero home runs. Here are three takeaways from the series finale at Fenway Park where all four games had the feel of September baseball, including the last two that required extra innings. Boston’s 4-3 walk-off win on Thursday was particularly entertaining, ending on a groundball Gimenez could not field cleanly with the bases loaded.
1. Bassitt hounded Chris Bassitt recorded four strikeouts in his first trip through Boston’s order. Much like his pitching peers this series, Bassitt gave the Jays all they could ask.
What he needed was run support. Entering play Thursday, Bassitt had pitched 12.2 innings and had yielded one earned run, while striking out 16 and yielding but two walks.
Against the Red Sox, Bassitt went 5.2 innings, giving up five hits and registering five strikeouts. He allowed only one earned run.
Bassitt’s ERA stands at 0.98 following three starts. The Blue Jays continue to lack that thump factor from its top of the order, but the team’s starting pitching has been among the very best, if not the best, in baseball.
2. Combative Bo Almost from the moment he arrived at spring training, there was something different about Bo Bichette. And it had nothing to do with his shorn locks.
Granted, the body of work this early in the season does not provide a sufficient sample size, but Bichette has the look and is playing like the Bo of old. Bichette led off the game with a Fenway Park single after he hit a liner off the Green Monster. He then lit up on a called third strike best described as dubious at best after plate umpire Manny Gonzalez called Bichette out.
Those are the pitfalls of baseball until the human element is removed. The show of emotion was a clear sign of Bichette’s engagement, but of greater importance was the obvious sign of his competitive fire. His fire was doused last season following a series of calf issues that never did heal.
A healthy Bichette is precisely what the doctor ordered for a Blue Jays team that needs his spirit. 3. Rest for the megarich? A cynic would argue Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
was accorded what essentially amounted to a rest day because he must have been too fatigued when counting the $500 million US he’ll rake in once his 14-year franchise-altering contract kicks in next season. While the necessary physicals needed to be completed and all the attendant details signed off, which must have been really taxing, the fact remains he wasn’t in the starting lineup for the series finale at Fenway, though he was available. Blue Jays manager John Schneider was keen on securing a day to give his slugger an unofficial day off, which makes sense on some level.
Vlad Jr. was coming off his first three-hit game of the season. He did enter the game on Thursday as a pinch-hitter in a 1-1 game, runners at the corner with one out in the seventh inning.
He was 0-for-10 as a pinch-hitter. He hit a ball up the middle, tailor-made for an inning-ending double play, but Boston only recorded a fielder’s choice, and the Jays took a 2-1 lead. Toronto last swept a four-game series from Boston at Fenway Park in 1988.
One would figure the more at-bats for Vlad Jr., the greater the Jays’ chances. He did get a second at-bat in the ninth after Tyler Heineman led off the frame with a single, his third hit of the game, but Vlad Jr.
flew out. UP NEXT The Blue Jays play a scuffling Orioles team that returned home from Arizona on Thursday. Against the Diamondbacks, Baltimore lost the three-game series and took it on the chin in a 9-0 shellacking in Wednesday’s finale; Baltimore scored 22 combined runs in a four-game series split in Toronto; RHP Bowden Francis starts for Toronto in Friday night’s series opener.
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